It appears that the moment the travel industry has been waiting for the past two years, the "great comeback", has finally arrived, with consumers now taking to the skies in pandemic-era record numbers. And, that's despite the fact that fuel costs are at record highs, leading to a spike in airfare pricing.
Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC) today published its data for March 2022, revealing that a total of $7.8 billion in air ticket sales were made through ARC-accredited travel agencies last month, representing a year-over-year increase of 180 percent from March 2021. Last month's net sales total also constituted a second sequential pandemic-era high and the first time that sales have exceeded $7 billion since the onset of COVID-19 in February 2020.
March 2022 also yielded the following month-over-month results:
- Total air ticket sales increased by 45 percent
- Total passenger trips increased by 25 percent
- U.S. domestic trips were up 25 percent
- International trips were up 26 percent
"March's sales were fueled by strong growth in corporate travel, which improved from 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels in the first week of March to 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels in the last week," said Steve Solomon, vice president of global customers and data products at ARC. "Despite rising airfares, the number of passenger trips continued to accelerate as international travel bookings neared pre-pandemic levels."
The total number of passenger trips processed by ARC in March 2022 had risen by 74 percent year over year, going from 14.3 million to 24.9 million. Also, year over year, U.S. domestic trips grew 64 percent to 16.3 million, while international trips had almost doubled, reaching 8.7 million.
Last month, the average fare for a U.S. round-trip flight was $540, a 41 percent increase over the average cost of $382 in March 2021. Not only that, but the March 2022 domestic fare average outstripped pre-pandemic pricing by 11 percent, as the pre-COVID average ticket price was $487. The last time this average exceeded $530 was in June 2015, when the average domestic fare price was $548.
March 2022 Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD) sales also increased 103 percent year over year to $11,739,523, and EMD transactions increased 86 percent to 232,848 over the same period.
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